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Admin Inpatient Form Templates
System administrators can design custom form templates that clinical staff use to capture structured information during a patient's inpatient stay. Examples include admission assessment forms, medical fitness certificates, and insurance medical reports. Each template defines a set of fields — text boxes, number inputs, date pickers, checkboxes, and more — that staff fill in against the admission record.
Use this feature when you need to:
- Create a new standardised form that ward or clinical staff must complete for each admission
- Add, remove, or reorder fields in an existing form template
- Rename or deactivate a form template that is no longer required
- Review which form templates are currently available to staff
- Log in with an administrator account that has the Inpatient Form Template Admin privilege
- Navigate to Admin → Inpatient → Form Templates
- The Form Templates list page will open, showing all existing templates
- On the Form Templates list page, click Add New Form
- The Form Template Editor opens
- In the Name field, enter a clear, descriptive name for the form (e.g. "Admission Assessment", "Medical Fitness Certificate", "Insurance Medical Report — NIC Sampath")
- In the Description field, enter a brief explanation of when this form should be used (e.g. "To be completed by the admitting nurse for all elective admissions")
- Click Save to create the template. The field editor will become available below.
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Click Add Field to open the field editor
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Fill in the field details:
Setting Description Field Label The name of the field as staff will see it (e.g. "Chief Complaint", "Blood Pressure", "Date of Last Admission") Help Text Optional guidance shown to staff when filling the field (e.g. "Enter systolic/diastolic, e.g. 120/80") Field Type The type of input (see Field Types below) Required Tick this if the field must be filled before the form can be saved Order The position of this field in the form (1 = first) -
Click Save Field — the field appears in the template's field list
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Repeat for each field needed in the form
| Field Type | Best Used For |
|---|---|
| Text (single line) | Short answers — names, reference numbers, brief notes |
| Text (multi-line) | Longer answers — clinical notes, observations, history |
| Number | Numeric measurements — age, weight, blood pressure readings |
| Date | Calendar-based date selection |
| Yes / No checkbox | Binary choices — e.g. "Patient consented?", "Fasting?" |
| Dropdown (select one) | Controlled choices — e.g. risk level, ward preference |
- On the Form Templates list page, find the template you want to edit
- Click the Edit button next to it
- You can:
- Change the template name or description and click Save
- Edit any existing field by clicking Edit next to that field
- Reorder fields by updating their Order numbers
- Remove a field by clicking Remove next to it (fields that have already been used in filled forms will be retained in historical records)
- Click Save after making changes
Important: Removing a field from a template only prevents it from appearing in new form submissions. Previously filled forms retain all their original fields and values.
If a form template is no longer needed, deactivate it rather than deleting it so that historical filled forms remain intact:
- On the Form Templates list page, find the template
- Click Edit
- Uncheck the Active toggle at the top of the form
- Click Save
Deactivated templates no longer appear in the dropdown when staff fill new forms, but existing filled forms using this template remain visible in the admission record.
- "Form template saved" — The template and its details have been recorded
- "Field saved" — The field has been added to the template
- "Field removed" — The field has been deleted from the template
- "Template name is required" — Enter a name before saving the template
- "Field label is required" — Each field must have a label before it can be saved
- "Order number must be unique" — Two fields cannot share the same order number; adjust the numbering
- Keep field labels short and unambiguous — staff will see these labels while filling the form during busy clinical hours
- Use Required sparingly — mark only fields that are genuinely mandatory for every submission of this form
- Test a new template by filling it yourself before making it available to staff — navigate to an admission, open Forms, and fill the new template to verify fields appear as intended
- Use the Description field to explain when the form should be used, especially if your hospital has multiple similar forms
- Group related fields together and number them sequentially so the form flows logically
Creating and managing form templates requires the Inpatient Form Template Admin privilege. Contact your system administrator if you need this privilege assigned to your role.
Cause: Your account does not have the Inpatient Form Template Admin privilege. Solution: Ask your system administrator to assign this privilege.
Cause: The template may have been saved as inactive, or staff may need to refresh their session. Solution: Open the template in Edit mode and confirm the Active toggle is on. Ask staff to log out and back in if the template still does not appear.
Cause: Fields removed from a template only affect new submissions. Existing filled forms store values independently. Solution: This is expected behaviour — historical form data is preserved. If the field values are now blank on a historical form view, it may indicate the form was never fully filled. Check the original submission record.